From the blessed al-Karak, two senior commanders set out that very day: Tughurdamur and Aqbugha ʿAbd al-Wahid. They advanced as far as al-Kiswah. On Saturday al-Fakhri himself departed, together with Tashtamur and the majority of the emirs, leaving in Damascus only those whose presence was indispensable for the affairs of the realm. With him went the four chief judges, the military judge, the signatories (1), the ṣāḥib (2), the army scribe, and a great many others.

The righteous, devout ascetic Shaykh Ahmad (3), known as al-ʿAṣīdah, passed away on the night of Sunday, the twenty-fourth of Ramadan. His funeral prayer was held in the Tankiz Mosque (4), and he was buried in the Ṣūfiyyah cemetery, close to the grave of Shaykh Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi. May Allah envelop them both in His mercy. He possessed abundant piety, was steadfast in performing the congregational prayers, commanded right and forbade wrong, and was praised by the people for his goodness. He frequently served the sick in the bimaristan and elsewhere, showed preference to others, lived contentedly and in much renunciation, and enjoyed many well-known spiritual states—may Allah have mercy on him and on us.

Toward the end of the same month it became widely known that Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir Shihab al-Din Ahmad had left the fortified al-Karak, accompanied by a group of Arabs and Turks, heading for the Egyptian lands. It was later confirmed that he departed on Monday, the eighteenth of the month, and that he entered Egypt a few days later (5), while the army was still advancing toward him. When his arrival in Egypt was verified, they accelerated their march southward and he, for his part, dispatched messages urging them on. It was also reported that he would not sit upon the royal throne until the Syrian emirs arrived together with his deputy, Emir Sayf al-Din Qutlubugha al-Fakhri; for this reason, so far as we have learned, the victory salutes were not beaten in the Syrian citadels or elsewhere.

Letters and reports from Egypt stated that on Monday, the tenth of Shawwal, Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir Shihab al-Din Ahmad was seated upon the throne of sovereignty. He and the Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amrillah Abu al-ʿAbbas Ahmad ibn al-Mustakfi ascended the pulpit wearing black, while the judges stood below them on its steps according to their stations. The Caliph delivered the sermon, deposed al-Ashraf Kujuk, and invested this al-Nasir; it was a day to be remembered. He also proclaimed the appointment of Tashtamur as viceroy of Egypt, al-Fakhri of Damascus, and Aydughmush of Aleppo—Allah knows best (6).

The victory drums were sounded in Damascus on the night of Friday, the twenty-first of the aforementioned month, and continued until—